ISRAELI POLICE ASSAULT ARAB COMMITTEE PRESS CONFERENCE

I don’t know any more about this than what is reported in this statement posted by the Joint List on Facebook today in Hebrew & Arabic (& shared by Ofer Neiman; see below).

Here is my translation from the Hebrew:

The Joint List condemns the Israel Police raid on the press conference held by the Supreme Monitoring Committee for Arab Affairs, and decries the prevention of holding the press conference and the use of brutal and excessive violence.

This morning the Supreme Monitoring Committee and a number of human rights organizations convened a press conference in Jerusalem, in order to speak about the outlawing of the Islamic Movement, its institutions and its organizations, and to discuss the political significances and the social and humanitarian implications of this act.

The dispersing of the press conference in such a violent and oppressive way, by throwing shock grenades, physically attacking the organizers and the attendees, and the use of methods of dispersing demonstrations, is further evidence of the government’s racist and hostile policy towards the Arab citizens. This is a direct continuation of the official governmental incitement and of its policy of oppression and discrimination against anything that is Arab, and an expression of the dominant oppressive and thuggish mentality.

Israel is torpedoing the use of legitimate forms anchored in the freedom of expression and is limiting the freedom of political action, in an attempt to establish new political rules of the game, and to delegitimize our legitimate struggle. Israel speaks in the language of power, but its tyrannical and heavy-handed occupation practices will not make us surrender, and we will continue with our people’s just struggle.